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A women-led cooperative in Rwanda’s Eastern Province has found a new way to add value to beekeeping — producing candles from beeswax residues.
The Musha Hub Cooperative in Rwamagana District, known for its honey and medicinal skincare oils, began making candles earlier this year after realizing large amounts of beeswax were going to waste. Their first products were quickly embraced by local customers, prompting the group to expand production.
“We recently started candle-making to see if we could produce more and distribute them across Rwanda,” said Hélène Uwitonze, president of the cooperative. “Some of our candles are infused with mosquito repellent for households, while others are ordinary candles for lighting. We want to make them in larger quantities.”
The cooperative, established in 2017, currently has 27 members — 24 women and three men — and manages 36 beehives. It hopes to grow that number to 100 in the coming years.
Uwitonze said the main challenge is limited beeswax supply due to low honey yields. To address that, the group plans to increase its hives and buy residues from other honey producers.
The cooperative is also working on producing smaller candles to compete with those already on the Rwandan market.
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